What Anthony Bourdain Really Thought About Food Network - Tasting Table

"Some of the absolute best lessons we learned from Anthony Bourdain deal less with cooking and more with living. As the intrepid traveler charted his own journey, staying true to the "more life" dogma meant obliterating the existing parameters of (ironically) digestible, chaste "food television" in the early 2000s - standards largely set by the Food Network. Bourdain's personal favorite food scenes in television history, after all, came from NBC's "Hannibal," a rather unexpected source."

"In a 2007 guest post he wrote for chef-slash-author Michael Ruhlman's blog (via Mashed), Bourdain even complements the culinary ingenuity of fellow "foodist" Alton Brown by expressing surprise at Brown's affiliation with the Food Network. "How did Alton slip inside the wire - and stay there all these years?," Bourdain said. "He must have something on them. He's smart. You actually learn something from his commentary.""

"Fast-forward to 2014 and an interview with Smithsonian Magazine, here Bourdain likens the Food Network's pantheon of programs more to "reality shows" than anything having to do with cooking. "People don't really cook on TV anymore [...] even the ones where they're actually cooking, it's more about interpersonal drama." Still, it's worth noting that the Food Network was the platform to initially broadcast "A Cook's Tour," Bourdain's first show."

Anthony Bourdain rejected sanitized, chaste food television and championed a more adventurous, authentic approach to culinary storytelling. He celebrated artistry in unexpected television food scenes and praised informative hosts who taught viewers practical knowledge. He criticized the Food Network for shifting toward reality-style programming that emphasizes interpersonal drama over actual cooking technique. Early career exposure on the Food Network helped launch his first show, but creative-control disputes and differing priorities prompted a split as his on-screen persona and ratings grew following Kitchen Confidential.

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